Tourney to crown one champ at 168

NEW YORK (AP) — Ken Hershman knows his plan is ambitious, a six-man super middleweight round-robin tournament designed to crown a single champion. He also understands that if he pulls it off, it could go a long way toward reviving the sport of boxing.

The tournament, featuring two current champions, two former middleweight champions and two up-and-coming U.S. Olympians, was announced Monday at Madison Square Garden. It will begin this fall and conclude with a seeded semifinals and championship in early 2011.

“The beauty of this is that at the end, there’ll be one winner,” said Hershman, the senior vice president in charge of boxing at Showtime. “He’ll be the best in his weight division.”

Hershman began putting the concept together in May, first pitching the idea directly to the fighters: WBC champion Carl Froch, WBA titleholder Mikkel Kessler, former middleweight champs Arthur Abraham and Jermain Taylor, and former Olympians Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell.

Then Hershman went to their five promoters and, in a sport where it’s difficult enough to get two sides to agree on a fight, managed to get all five to sign a contract.

“It was an interesting process and not one I relish repeating,” Hershman said. “But they all believe firmly they can win the tournament and ... that eliminated all the nonsense.”

Each fighter will be guaranteed three bouts and earn points based on their decisions. A victory will be worth two, including a bonus point for a knockout, and a draw will earn one point. The four boxers with the most points will advance to the semifinals.

While dates and locations have not been confirmed, the first group of bouts is set. Dirrell will fight Froch for his WBC title, while Kessler defends his WBA title against Ward and Taylor fights Abraham.

“It happened so fast,” Taylor said. “I was wondering what I was going to do next, and I got a phone call saying this tournament was coming. I couldn’t wait to sign.”

Hershman would not reveal what contingencies are in place should a fighter get hurt, fail a drug test or drop out for some other reason, but he acknowledged that IBF champ Lucian Bute or another top super middleweight could conceivably end up in the tournament.

“If you have eight, at some point it becomes so unwieldy and long, and you run the risk of collapsing on top of itself,” Hershman said.